Jul 29, 2013

The meeting was called to order at 12:27pm
by Gregg Gardiner, standing in for President Ziggy, who is at the Gilroy Garlic
Festival.

The Pledge of Allegiance
was led by John McBeth.

The Invocation was led by
Bill McAuley.

Visiting Rotarians: Lee Cunningham of Cupertino Rotary Club was fined
for not standing up when visiting Rotarians were called.

Guests of Rotarians: Eric Bergel re-introduced Tonia our inbound Norwegian
exchange student from two years ago who is now attending college in San Jose. She was accompanied by her friend Eddie Clayton.

Kathleen Cloney-Gardiner
introduced her two guests; Sandy and Holly both teachers at Winship Middle
School.

Announcements: Acting President Gregg asked all veterans of the Korean War to stand
in recognition of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the
armistice that ended the Korean War. Bob
Palmrose, Steve Beckman, and Dick Storre all received a round of applause.

Carlton Nielsen said that
host families are needed for our incoming exchange student Dan who is arriving
from Vladivostok Russia on August 12th. The Williston’s have generously offered to be
the first home family. He added that
Southwest and Old
Town are also looking for
host families.

Acting President Gregg
asked everyone who had purchased a pie from Mindy Bussman to raise their
hand. Only one person raised their hand,
so Acting President Gregg asked all other Rotarians to put $5 on the table. That
money will go to Backpacks for Kids.

Birthdays-
Hank Pierson, Murl Harpham, Kurt Bartel all this week.

Anniversaries: Burt and Susanne Campton are celebrating 37 “blissful” years,
according to Bert Campton. Craig Hansen and Lisa Hansen (who are currently in Europe it was noted).
George and Gail Owren are celebrating their 49th anniversary. Tom and Karen McMurray.

Cathy Cloney-Gardiner
reported on the progress at Winship over the weekend. A number of Rotarians and volunteers showed
up to help. A big thank you to all of
the many Rotarians who pitched in. They
made significant progress. Winship
teachers, Sandy and Holly also commented on the event saying that the amount of
help and donations they have received has left them speechless.

Congratulations, Dave!

Acting President Gardiner
asked all Rotarians that had traveled outside of Humboldt County in the last 60
days to stand up. Over 30 Rotarians
stood. One by one each Rotarian detailed
their adventures which resulted in fines ranging from a $25 credit for one to a
$100 fine for Rotarian Dave Parris who had not only traveled but was recently married
and had a daughter get married- he received a triple fine. One table attempted to negotiate a group
discount as everybody at the table had stood up. The noble attempt failed and all received
fines.

The biggest fine of $200
was given to Gregg’s own wife Cathy for her recent visit to Cabos San Lucas as
well as winning the first 22nd District PTA Outstanding
Administrator Award.

Don Leonard then stood and
squealed on his neighbor, Lisa Slack, who, as he put it, had one of the most
interesting trips imaginable. Lisa
stood, threatening a personal visit to Don’s house in retaliation, and
enthralled her audience with details regarding her trip to England, tours of
Old Castles, and tour of Frankfurt, Germany and the surrounding countryside by
motorcycle. As Lisa put it, it was a
fun, interesting and scary trip. She
also attended two Rotary meetings, including one in Salzburg where she was the sole woman amongst
30+ gentlemen.

Guest Speaker: Steven Lafferty introduced our
guest speaker, Chief Ken Woods of the Humboldt Bay Fire District. He started off by telling us a little bit
about himself. He worked in the Bay area
in fire protection for 25 years prior to coming to Humboldt County in 2008 as
Chief of Humboldt No. 1 Fire Protection District. In 2011 He was made Joint Chief of Humboldt Fire
Protection District and the Eureka Fire Department. This consolidation had been discussed for
over 60 years but it finally happened in 2011.
This district covers over 53 miles and serves 60,000 people. There are 70 full time employees and 15
volunteers. They average 5,700 calls a
year. The majority of those calls are medical related. Public assistance calls can range from
helping somebody who has fallen out of bed and can’t get back in to a water
pipe that has broken and more.

There are 5 stations in
the district that are staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They are an all risk district meaning they
cover all calls. Including traffic
collisions, fines, medial response and of course fires. They have specialized trained teams to handle
special emergencies including a Hazardous Materials Team, Water Rescue team,
certified space rescue (rescuers that have to work within a small space to
rescue somebody).

The City of Eureka Fire
Department was formed in the 1800s and the Humboldt Bay Fire Department was
formed in the 1920s. This consolidation
has taken the best of both departments and combined them, significantly lowering
the overhead.

The district's motto is printed on the new truck

The focus is on serving
their community. Examples of that are
their Gift Card Program which enables them to leave a VISA Gift Card with people who have been devastated by a house
fire so that they can get clothes, shelter, etc. overnight while waiting for
their insurance company to help. Another example was a young mother who was
locked out of her house while her two small children were inside. The firemen broke down the door to get in so
she could quickly get to her children. Then
they went to the hardware store, purchased a new deadbolt and came back and
installed it on her door.

They received a medical
call to Target where a woman who was traveling through Eureka with her husband
in their RV had a medical emergency. The
firemen took care of the woman, got her on the ambulance and to St. Joseph but they also
made sure the husband was able to get to the hospital as well. They helped him unhook his RV from his truck
and personally escorted him to the hospital.

It’s important to them
that they are responsive to the needs of the community in every way
possible. The discussion concluded with
a few questions and a gift from Matthew Owen and Virginia Bass in the form of
two bottles of wine. One from Riverbend
Cellars named Firehouse Red and another from Tillerman Winery appropriately
named Hook and Ladder.

The meeting was adjourned
at 1:17pm and we all took a field trip to the parking lot where we were wowed by
the brand new, $1.1 million dollar Tiller fire truck. This truck is so long it requires two drivers
at all times….one on the front of the truck and one on the rear.

Jul 22, 2013

Meeting of the Rotary Club of EurekaJuly 22, 2013Lunch: Fried chicken, pot roast, mashed potatoes and carrot cake.S&P: 1695The meeting was called to order by President Ziggy on a gorgeous July day, three minutes late.

The Pledge of Allegiance was led by me.

The invocation as led by Past President Carlton Nielsen.

Mindy Bussman and Steve Lafferty are selling raffle tickets for Backpacks for Kids. $10 each or 12 for $100. The prize is a $3,500 travel gift certificate from Dalianes Travel! Second prize is a $500 gift certificate to Pierson's Building Center. The drawing will be on August 30. Please contact Mindy or Steve for a ticket. The order form can also be found along the right and side of the Burl blog.

President Elect, Gregg Gardiner, made a great airplane joke. He must have read last week's Burl and worked on some new material! He also gave an update on the Winship Middle School field project. Trenches for irrigation lines have been dug, SWOP crews have been moving brush, and sand has been delivered. As the project price tag continues to climb, sponsors have been stepping up. There is a work crew this weekend at the school. President Elect Gardiner thanks everyone for their help and support.FUN FACT: The Elk's Lodge has a disco ball.

Lisa Corral visited our club, and is a prospective member.Jim Sieler of Fortuna Rotary visited as well.Maria Castillo visited our club as a guest of Mike Cunningham. Bruce Smith's cousin from Prague attended as well. Jeff Leonard suffered a short joke in introducing outbound exchange student, Ashley Bott.Birthdays and Anniversaries are in the book, congratulations to all.Past President Nielsen gave a historical brief on our Rotary Club from the 1940s. Plenty of past presents have their descendants in the club, and despite WWII, there was good attendance and excellent programs. Fines were raised in 1944 from $.25 to $1.00. The Spengler Youth Raffle began int he 1940s.Stacy Lane returned from a vacation in Peru and Ecuador, which consisted primarily of retired ladies. $50

Past President Dennis Hunter is retired, after a long tenure as VP of Marketing for Coast Central Credit Union. Fishing, attending Giants games, and having fun cost him $50.

Matthew Owen introduced our guest today, Casey Allen. Casey is the head of the Humboldt Area Saltwater Anglers Association, attempting to build a reef locally. He was wearing a collared shirt covered with pictures of rockfish. Very appropriate. The site for the proposed reef is about a mile off the jetty. They anticipate using about 2000 triangular reef modules which they would drop in clusters to encourage habit.Saltwater sport fishing is a $3 billion dollar a year business in California.The regulatory issues are daunting, but they have hired an environmental consultant to help them navigate the regulatory process.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife does not have a dedicated staffer for the project, but Casey is hopeful they will be able to get the project through despite this.

HSU has an environmental impact class helping with the research. They estimate it will be six more years before the project is completed on the current timeline.

Casey estimates that the cost of the project will be.....he never actually gave a number, but it should like it could be several million dollars.

There is some concern that the structures might be sanded in, but there's reasonable scientific evidence that the site they have chosen will not cause any meaningful problems.

HASA is an incorporated non-profit and you can look them up online at the Humboldt Tuna Club discussion board.

The guest was thanked, the library book was signed, and my last meeting as a member of this club ended early. It's been a pleasure.

Jul 16, 2013

The menu was Swiss steak in tomato sauce, corn, scalloped
potatoes, salad bar, with apple crisp and cool whip for dessert. The meeting was lightly attended. Mike Messner gave the invocation. The Elks Club had neglected to put out the
flag, so Ziggy plucked one out of the flag array on the podium and held it up
as David Tyson led us in the pledge.
Birthday boys were Gregg Gardiner and Fred Sunquist.

John Bartholomew was recognized for being
seen in Blue Lake wearing an “Old Crows” hat and Logger Bar T shirt. He said he
was part of a group of guys who volunteered to do improvement projects in
town. Ziggy asked him if his group had
been involved in the recent parade, and then fined him $50 for lining the Shriners
up in front of a Brewery that was closed.
Dan Heinen was recognized for new granddaughter and Al Crnich was
singled out for having left his badge on the table the last meeting. Al said that he forgot things, like zipping
up his fly. Ziggy said it was better to
forget to zip it up than zip it down.
We were all relieved when he changed the subject. Tim Jones paid $50 to Rotary for his new
son 9 pounds 10 ounces. Keith Crossley
made a generous donation of $1,000 to help refurbish Winship School.

Our German Exchange Student Larissa
recounted her experience on her recent trip through the West. She and her fellow exchange students
descended into the Grand Canyon without realizing that getting in was a lot
easier than getting out. They were so
tired when they reached Las Vegas they couldn’t walk around, so they rented a
limo. They also visited Yosemite. She flies back home to her parents on
Sunday. Outgoing exchange student
Ashley is raising funds by dancing for tips at Gallagher’s Irish Pub on Thursdays. Go see her, she’s an award winning clog
dancer. Ziggy reminded club members
that if you don’t have the 14.50 lunch, you must pay $4 for coffee.

Ziggy then called up David Tyson to
introduce our program, Betty Chinn , head of the Betty Kwan Chinn Homeless
Foundation, which is about to open a day center for the homeless in a building
located at 133 7th Street in Eureka. Betty Chinn has been helping the homeless for over 30 years. It is her passion, because she has
experienced homelessness first hand.
Her parents were physicians in China, and spoke out against the
regime. They were jailed, and Betty
found herself living on the streets at age 7.
Two years later she was sent to a work camp. When the authorities discovered that her mother was a American
citizen they released her and sent her to the U.S. She landed with $20 in her pocket, and went to live with her
sister in Seattle. When she started her
arranged marriage, she spoke no English and her husband spoke no Chinese. She learned English, she says, by watching
Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street.

She
started out by feeding the homeless out of her home, and with the help of
others and her own determination gradually increased her activities. In 2012 she and her army of volunteers
served 292,000 meals, provided 4,680 showers to 486 people, handed out over
7,600 items of clothing, purchased 246 bus tickets to send 267 adults and
children home to their families (no one has returned) placed 23 individuals and
31 families in permanent housing, and spoke to 72 schools and community groups.

Rex Bohn talked about the homeless he had met.
They were local people raised here who might be just 3 months out of a
paycheck. Some have mental
problems. He said that no one moves
here just to get a free peanut butter sandwich for lunch every day.

The new center will provide street outreach,
case management, life-skills workshops, Mental Health services, a learning
center, transitional housing, a commercial kitchen, and a kids program. The philosophy of the center is that
everyone deserves the opportunity to change their life. Every person has a unique path, and every
person should be treated with dignity, compassion and respect. After giving Betty her book to sign, Ziggy
remembered that he hadn’t done the raffle yet.
I guess 20 years on the Spengler Raffle committee didn’t help him.

Jul 11, 2013

Our second
semi permanent meeting at the Elk's Lodge was called to order on a beautiful
sunny Eureka day by President Ziggy Ziegenfuss.

Ziggy rings the bell

The microphone continues to put
off a pleasant, echoing, high-pitched whine throughout the meeting.Richard
Whittaker led the Pledge of Allegiance.

Lisa Slack invocates. She wasfined $50

Lisa Slack led the invocation.President
Ziggy's phone rang right before the Pledge. He fined himself $30.Past
President Jim Davis introduced guest Kathy Smith, president of College of the
Redwoods.Matthew Owen introduced the exchange kids.Bruce Smith
introduced his daughter Nicky, and his cousin Saboudeed Masimoff.Carlton
Nielsen introduced a past exchange student from Denmark.Jason Eads
introduced Scott Icanitch, an intern at his law office.Birthdays and
anniversaries are in the book, congratulations to all.

Matt Messner learns he's onthe clean-up committee

New Rotary
directories came out today. Please review at your leisure and find out which
club committees you've been added to. You might have duties you aren't even
aware of. I did!Lisa Slack just returned from six weeks in Europe.
$50.

Our exchange students

Our local outbound exchange students came to the front and discussed
where they are going on exchange. Italy, Thailand, Sweden and Hungary. Sounds
like a lot of fun, enjoy guys.There was a vote on table linens for an extra $1. It
didn't pass. Paper placemats will continue to rule the day.Carol Riche
went on a cruise in Scandinavia. $50.

President Elect Gregg Gardiner
introduced today's speaker. He made at least one joke that got no laughs. No
worries Gregg, happens to me every day.

Our speaker today is our fellow Rotarian

Dr. Fred Van Vleck

Dr. Fred VanVleck, Superintendent of Eureka City Schools.Dr. VanVleck
polled the room on their belief that our youth have employment opportunities to
stay in the community. A little less than half the room raised their hands.Dr. VanVleck
agrees with the minority, that our youth have opportunities to stay and thrive
in our community.

He went through the last year’s accomplishments. No
teacher layoffs, opening Winship, a 19:1 ratio of students to teachers at the
elementary level, and moving students into their neighborhood schools.
Contracts are settled with teachers, locker rooms at Eureka High have
been updated, and custodial and instructional standards are being standardized
across the district. Those two are only tangentially related.They've
applied for grants, partnered with HSU on teacher curriculum, allowed
enrollment at school sites, built a PR campaign, adopted Google as their cloud
platform. There was more stuff too.

ALARMING FACT: The population of Eureka
grew by 1,000 from 2000 to 2012. The students in Eureka City Schools dropped by
over 40%.Fred has been gone from Humboldt County for 20 years,
and he came back because he believes in our community.The school
board has 22 defined goals for the next several years in their strategic plan.
Contact him or a school board member for a copy of the goals statement.Fred
discussed some of the negotiations with the teachers union. The union is asking
for just over a 15% raise for the most senior teachers by length of service.
The district is currently offering across the board 3% raises. Expect some
modest disagreements over this negotiating point going forward.

Dr. VanVleck
thanked our club and the community for our help in the project at Winship
Middle School.Q&AI asked why
Winship was reopening with the long-term loss of students in the district. Fred
explained that essentially the district closed too many schools over the past
decade, causing severe overcrowding in the primary schools. Fred recommended
Winship reopen to deal with this overcrowding.Penmanship and handwriting have
been eliminated. You'll just need to get a smartphone and learn about
emoticons. LOL! Ask your grandkids.

Counseling at
Eureka High has been a hot button issue, so the job was restructured to ensure
that good communication and counseling is provided to students and clearly
telegraphed to parents.Ebooks? It's a state-level decision. Call/email/bribe
your local congressman.Music programs? They make the cut. The school is
focused on offering them.Auto shop? Not next year, there's not enough
enrollment past the introductory level.Comparing our educational system with
other nations? The measurement metrics aren't comparing apples to apples.
There's a new assessment standard going into effect for 48 of 50 states. We'll
get back to you in a decade or so with the results.The guest was
thanked, the library book was signed, and the meeting ended on time.

Jul 2, 2013

This meeting was the first in the 90th year of
Eureka Rotary, and the venue has changed.
Now we meet at the Elk’s Club on Herrick Avenue. The Lunch charge was only $14, and the meal consisted of breaded
cutlets, pork, mixed vegetables, rice with slivered almonds, a nice salad bar
and a slice of chocolate pie for dessert.

Greg Pierson gives Nancy five.

Nancy Dean rang the bell as her last official duty as president. She called on Tom Shallert for the pledge,
and John Gierek Jr. for the invocation.
She thanked the members of her board of directors.

Nancy's crew

Present were Keith
Crossley, Eric Bergel, and Greg Bowen, and each got a gift. She also thanked Secretary Dan Heinen and
sergeant at arms Dale Warmuth. Greg
Pierson then presented her with the past president’s pin and badge. She then gave “Ziggy” Ziegenfuss his
president’s pin.

Ziggy gets his president's pin

Ziggy announced that
Gregg Gardiner was the new president-elect.
John Harper, Alicia Cox and Mike Downey got director’s pins. President Ziegenfuss announced the theme of
his year “Honor the past, enter the future with the keys to success”. Will the
new slogan fit on the cover of the Roster?
We’ll find out in a week. His
first order of business was to reduce annual dues by $80. He then said those who paid their dues would
get a free t-shirt. He promised more
off site meetings, closer scrutiny of attendance, and more world service
projects. “We’re going to make this one
heck of a year, and have fun doing it!”

Dan Kadurna

Dave Dillon presented a special guest, Dan Kadurna. He was a former Rotary exchange student who
we sent to Brazil. He thanked Rotary
and said the experience helped him get into West Point. He flew helicopters for a while, then
retired to go to work for Aflac in
Valparaiso Indiana. Gregg Gardiner then
came up to announce an urgent project.

Gregg and Kathy Gardiner

Winship School is reopening and needs refurbishment. 280 6th and 7th grade
students are coming this fall. It
needs Sports equipment, musical instruments, reseeding and leveling the
playground, fixing the pot holes on the basketball court, and repairing the
gymnasium scoreboard. It’s a $100,000
project. They have 7,000 plus 13,000
for musical instruments. It all needs
to be done before August when football camp starts. Should be a Piece of cake.
Contact Gregg or Kathy Cloney Gardiner if you would like to
contribute.

The Elks Club

Ziggy then promised us that
the meetings would all end at 1:30 pm or before, and let us all go at
1:15pm. It was a promising start to our
90th year.

Jul 1, 2013

This
was the 45th and final meeting for Rotary Year 2012-2013. Past President Greg Pierson presided over
the meeting so that a proper debunking of outgoing President Nancy Dean could
take place. As Greg further stated, “We
want to properly celebrate your reign.” The meeting was held at the Wharfinger,
but please note that starting next week our Monday meetings will be held at the
Elks Lodge until further notice. Our flag salute this week was led by Rotarian
Bob Palmrose. Bob’s not a member of our club, but he has better attendance here
than his own club.

In keeping with the theme of our meeting, our own Greg
Williston gave the invocation, which in honor of outgoing President Dean he
promised to “KEEP IT SHORT”, which he did and which she is. We had visiting guest of Rotarian Davis
Wells, Mr. Mark Carter of the same named Carter Hotel. Jay Hockaday also invited Channel 2
Meteorologist, Cecelia Reeves.
Hmm…weather predictions…the end of President Dean’s “rain”…I wondered,
why is she here?

We
had no visiting Rotarians and no Exchange Students with us this week. Something must have RAINED on their
parade! We had three visiting Rotaract
Members who clearly were not going to let any RAIN keep them from coming, Carly
Robbins, Clark Swan, and Jessica (sorry, I did not get her last name). th, Aaron Tilch on June 21st,
and Bruce Rupp on June 22nd.
Wedding anniversaries announced were Rena & Dean Christiansen on
June 24th, Fred & Linda Sundquist, Jr., on June 24th,
Jill & John Bartholomew on June 27th, Greg Gardiner & Kathy
Cloney-Gardiner on June 28th, Larona & Daniel Farnum on June 28th,
and John & Melina Harper on June 29th. There were no Rotary anniversaries this week. Announcements for the week included the
following: Our Exchange students Larissa & Bibi are seeking a ride to San
Francisco this Saturday, June 29th. They are on their way to a
“Western Safari” outing that will include stops in Los Angeles, Arizona, the
Grand Canyon, Nevada and then back. If
any is heading south, please give them a call.
Backpacks for Kids fundraiser is still on the front burner! The winner
will be selected Aug. 30th. Tickets are $10 each or packs of 12 tickets can be
had for $100. First prize is a $3500
Vacation Getaway, and second prize is a Pierson’s Gift Certificate! Outgoing President Nancy Dean spent time
prior to the meeting handing out rain sticks to all members who had not
received one over the last year. Nancy
you did an AWESOME job over the last year – three hip-hip-hurrahs and one
“short” “rain” dance for Nancy!!

Our
incoming President Donald “Ziggy” Ziegenfuss starts the 2013-2014 Rotary Year
next Monday, July 1st, at the Elks Club. Come share in his first
week as President! We had two winners
for the Spengler “Science Fair” Raffle Tickets – Ziggy won $10 which he
promptly donated to Backpacks for Kids and one of our student guests got the
other $10 prize. Finally we got to the
hotly anticipated debunking of President Nancy Dean. In preparation for the debunking

Greg Pierson gallantly offered a
bright yellow rain jacket with hood and gloves…after all, come rain or shine,
we wanted Nancy to be prepared. So,
onto the debunking: Jill MacDonald came
up first and announced that after careful deliberation the debunking would be
“gender neutral”.

Hank Ingham wanted us
to know that some careful analysis of all past Presidents had been done, and
Nancy had proved to be the 2nd tallest female President, the 2nd
shortest President, the President with the 2nd highest approval
rating, and only the 2nd best weather prognosticator. A coin flip
was more accurate. However, not to let
this drizzle of 2nd best rain on her parade, Hank also announced
that Nancy was actually first in one very vital category – she is the FIRST
President named Nancy! Tom Schallert
also wanted us to all be aware of how she was viewed as head of the local
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) offices. The following comments where shared by her
co-workers. Her vision was described as
“partly cloudy”, and her demeanor as a “cold front, with a hot interior”. As for her management style, it is
universally accepted that she is “scattered & occluded”. Finally, while her attitudes were often
“turbulent”, she always “treated Rotarians as fair weather friends”.

Former President Carlton Nielsen also had a list of the top
17 accomplishments as President, which included among other things: #17 that
she was in charge of the weather (though there were clear questions as to her
accuracy), #11 that she was the first President to make sure that Board
Meetings always ended on time (where were you off to after that?!), #10 she had
successfully corralled over 30 volunteers for various projects over the year
(“don’t worry, it will only take a few minutes…”), #7 she is the only Rotarian
with a Prius, #6 that her email address is unfailingly treated as spam, #5 she
is lovingly referred to as “Mama Dean” by our Rotaract club, #4 she was
instrumental in seeing that Franco’s family was helped every step of the way
after his injury, #2 she is unbeatable at arm wrestling, and #1 the threat that
was always hanging over us like a dark storm cloud, “don’t make me bring out
the really big rain stick!! Nancy Dean,
a formidable thunderhead, ready to deal out rain and lightning – we love you Nancy!
You have been an awesome President. Thank you!!!

Cecelia Reeves, our guest meteorologist from News Channel 3, had
some choice observations about Nancy.
People had always told her that Nancy was short, but she didn’t realize
how SHORT she really was. Based on her
own experience with NOAA, Cecelia was amazed at the casual “sweaters and
Birkenstock” dress code Nancy allows in her office, and it’s been clear that
“showers are optional” at NOAA.

Birthdays for this week included George
Owren and Richard Whitaker on July 19

John
Gierek had a particularly amusing take on the scientific processes Nancy and
NOAA use. As John reported, NOAA is a
government agency that goes back to the mid-1800s, and even at that time they
used rigorous scientific methodology.
In fact, they had one of the first government computing systems, which
is now fondly referred to as the “Lady Luck NOAA Computer”.

This system was quite sophisticated, and
used two highly technical tools – a coin and a chart. In this process the computer operator would first engage with the
coin, vigorously flipping it into the air, and then making careful observations
as to what side of the coin it landed on.

Once the side of the coin was ascertained, then the highly trained
operator would refer to the region specific chart to determine what the
predicted daily weather would be. Even
though this first computer was highly sophisticated, it’s predictive power was
only 50:50 -- still that was pretty
good back in the 1870s. Then there was
big breakthrough in technology in the mid-20th century. With its sharper pin-point accuracy this new
computer was referred to as DART. No
longer hobbled by the inferior coin methodology, this new technology allowed
the operator to utilize a finely honed tool, the “dart”, which the operator
would then direct to the chart. Now, in this case, the chart had also been
greatly improved – rather than relying on a binary selection paradigm, it
allowed a trinary focusing tool. Now the operator could not only predict,
“rain” or “shine”, but other conditions like “fog” could be identified. Of
course, as before, the charts used by the DART system could also be customized
to the local area – so places in the Midwest, for example, might have
“lightning” or “cyclone” added to their predictive models. Finally we come to the present, and this was
also a leap forward in technology, and it one that President Nancy has teased
us with over the last year. This most
magnificent jump in technology is referred to as the Hoover Atmospheric
Technology, or HAT for short. This new
technology is cutting edge, and allows for a very fine gradation of predictive
power. In this case all the possible
weather outcomes are identified and entered onto special “slips of paper”. These are then introduced into the HAT
system, which the operator can now query.
Once the proper query and verbal commands are made the operator can
reach into the HAT system and withdraw the predicted outcome. Now the real beauty of this system is that
operator can use their own judgment to override the original HAT prediction,
making additional queries to the system until the desired prediction is
reached. Once the desired outcome is
reached, the operator can then instruct the system to display the prediction on
the front display of the HAT system.
Having watched President Nancy use this system over the last year at our
weekly meetings, I think we can all bow in amazement at the wondrous job Nancy
is producing at NOAA, and we definitely are very thankful that she’s shared the
outcomes of these to us every Monday.
THANK YOU NANCY!!

Next we heard
from three of our Rotaract Club members – Carly Robbins (former Rotaract
President), Clark Swan (current Rotaract District Representative”), and Jessica
(sorry, no last name given). These
Rotaract members first met Nancy in 2009, and they report how amazing Nancy has
been. Nancy has attended a majority of
the Rotaract meetings since it started, and through her help and guidance our
Rotaract Club has now won the Rotaract of the Year award in our District for
the last two years. Amazing job! So, how has Nancy gotten such participation,
engagement and commitment from these future Rotarians? Well the surprise
answer, the dark secret, was revealed for all to hear.

Nancy has been giving
Paul Harris Fellow buttons to all Rotaract President!! Ye gads!! Is this bribery!? Moreover, even
the young daughter of one of those present was given one of these
buttons!! So, is this why she goes to
so many of their meetings? Is this why she answers their emails and phone calls
so promptly? Sometimes within 20 minutes or less! All kidding aside, these Rotaract members clearly love Nancy, who
they fondly refer to as Mama Dean. Hugs
and affirmations of affection follow!
Nancy, we too applaud your amazing effort with Rotaract. You are definitely an inspiration!! Hank Ingham followed up with his annual
PowerPoint debunking presentation. As
so many before him have done, he reminds us of how Nancy “comes up short”. Then
he launches into a very convincing conspiracy theory around Nancy’s success.
First, he reminds us of her “stool”, as that’s something we should definitely
look into more carefully. Then there’s
those mysterious “rain stick” she’s been handing out. There must be some deeper hypnotizing affect to their gentle
drizzling sounds. Most significantly
there is the stovepipe hat she wears.
We musn’t forget that both President Nancy & President Lincoln wore
stovepipe hats. More importantly, they were both born in a year starting with
the number “1”. Next there is the
question of busts – both of them have them, Lincoln has one in Washington, DC,
and Nancy always has hers close by.
Finally notice the great similarity between the famous Lincoln Logs, and
Nancy’s rain stick. Now seriously, we ask you – is this merely a coincidence,
or is something more sinister afoot. Think about it! Getting close to meetings end, Greg Pierson wanted to reiterate
how you, Nancy, “stuck it to us (with rain sticks) all year long”. In reply we collected a number of
suggestions of how we might repay you.
Suggestions included bread sticks, yard sticks, fish sticks, regular
sticks, painted sticks, pretzel sticks, make-up sticks, lip sticks and even
drum sticks. In the end, the only thing
that truly made sense was RAIN STICK, but not one of the “SHORT” ones you’ve
been giving to us all year long. So, we
decided to give you, Nancy, a rainstick that was bigger than you! We hope you find it’s soothing sounds a
pleasant reminder of all we’ve put up with! Again, we love you Nancy! Not willing to let matters lie, Nancy
informed us that we had missed a couple of key points. In her professional careers,
for example, we forgot to mention two very powerful tools she uses: a CRYSTAL
BALL and a MAGIC EIGHT BALL…both of which have been instrumental in her
success. In closing she also wanted to gracefully thank the Rotaract, the
Wharfinger for letting us use their space, the lunch crew we’ve been getting
tasty meals from, and all of us in Rotary too. Thank you Nancy! With that, the meeting was adjourned.

Backpacks For Kids

Backpack assembly is held during the school year at 4:00pm on Thursdays at Humboldt Moving & Storage on Albee Street in Eureka, between 14th & 15th Streets. For more information, please contact Mindy Bussman.